


leaning on you

by roseweasley394



Series: Moments Like These [29]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Growing Up Together, Hogwarts, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:42:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27268936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseweasley394/pseuds/roseweasley394
Summary: In which Rose and Scorpius grow up and grow together. A short story of love over seven years.
Relationships: Scorpius Malfoy/Rose Weasley
Series: Moments Like These [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1780003
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33





	leaning on you

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!! This little piece is kind of a combination of all the works I've posted so far in this series:) I really hope that you've been enjoying the world I've created for Rose and Scorpius. More to come soon! xx

* * *

Loving Scorpius had always been easy for Rose, something she understood with absolute and complete clarity. In some form or another, she had begun loving him the day they met. He was an outcast, a scared 11-year-old boy who just needed a friend. She loved that she could be what he needed, even if she didn’t quite understand that at the time. It was Rose that walked to classes with him, Rose that proudly announced to her red-faced and stuttering father that her best friend was Scorpius Malfoy, Rose that Scorpius sought comfort in after receiving another demeaning letter from his grandfather about how he was sullying the Malfoy name simply by having been sorted into Gryffindor. With the possible exception of Albus, they were each other's favorite person in the world. She leaned on him and him on her and it was everything.

***

Second year they argued over anything and everything and it drove Albus absolutely up the wall. Funnily enough, they were never actually angry with each other; their fights were ways to blow off steam from their personal lives. Scorpius with the fear that he would never be seen as anything more than the son of a Death Eater and Rose’s trepidation that she would never be as good as her mum and dad because they’d saved the bloody world and she just liked watching quidditch. Yet, even underneath their greatest fears and insecurities was a friendship unshakable by petty bickering and hastily thrown insults. Rose realized this when a couple of third years cornered her at the end of term and mocked her for living in her parent’s shadow. It was Scorpius who fought through the crowd, took her arm, and led her into an empty classroom where she cried all night. She leaned into his shoulder and he patted her back in the awkward way that twelve-year-old boys do and she felt worlds better by morning. It was Scorpius that knew how to cheer her up and make her laugh, not Albus or James or Alice or anyone else for that matter. She needed him terribly and found comfort in seeing that crazily enough, he needed her just as much.

***

Third year was difficult. They’d hardly been at Hogwarts for two months before Scorpius had been taken by Zabini, Nott, and Flint. Nothing could ever be the same after that night and Rose knew it. Not with something so horrendous carved into his arm, not when his screams haunted her dreams each night, not after the fire in him had been extinguished into a mere flicker of what once was. It was a year of healing for Scorpius and Rose could do nothing but watch as her best friend in the world mended from wounds so deep she was surprised he was even alive at all. He did the leaning that year, not her. She offered her advice, her listening ear, and turned a blind eye to his tears. Meanwhile, everyone else kept trying to find ways to fix him. His parents and the mediwitch begged him to talk things out and to verbalize how he was feeling. No one else could understand that all he really needed was a friend, no one but Rose. It was then that his feelings for her began to shift. He didn’t know what it was quite yet, but something was different and it scared him more than he cared to admit. Were his emotions going to screw up the best thing in his life?

***

Fourth year came and Rose sensed a change. Scorpius suddenly became more careful around her but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why. She tried to carry on as normal, doing her best to rile him up to catch a glimpse of how things used to be. Was it crazy of her to admit that she actually missed arguing with him? No, she decided firmly. She didn’t miss their fighting, she missed their banter and goading that always ended in laughing until her sides hurt. She missed the old Scorpius, not this version of him that seemed reluctant to be near her at all. It was this newfound hesitancy from him that stung the most. Long gone were the days of him slinging a carefree arm over her shoulders or grabbing her hand and pulling her down the corridors in a rush. Some days it felt like he couldn’t stand to be around her at all. She desperately wanted to know what she had done to deserve such treatment, but Albus always told her that she was being ridiculous and that nothing was different at all. And so, she suffered in silence, trying her hardest to ignore the hurt that lingered in her chest.

It wasn’t until the end of term when Scorpius had a bad argument with his dad, something that rarely happened, that Rose recognized how much they still needed each other. They stayed awake all night, sitting on the couches in the Gryffindor common room talking about everything and she was hit by how much he meant to her. She loved how she could say anything to him, how he liked her regardless of her last name, that he promised her they would always stay friends no matter what. That night they fell asleep by the barley blazing fire and when Rose woke up to find his head leaning on her shoulder, she felt something bloom in her chest that felt a lot different than friendship.

***

Fifth year was confusing. Suddenly, Rose saw Scorpius in a whole new light and she began to notice things that she hadn’t before. He was only ever fidgety in History of Magic and she suspected it was to keep awake. In Potions, he had a habit of doodling pictures of plants on the edges of his parchment that were actually very good, and in Charms, he was always the first to get a spell down but never flaunted it. He was humble and kind and warm and just the thought of him made her stomach flip in a way she normally didn’t associate with him. She noticed other things too, like how every girl in their year was suddenly obsessed with him. It made something in her chest churn uncomfortably as she listened to the girls in her dorm talk about his high cheekbones and perfectly platinum hair. She thoroughly resisted the urge to break Emily Vane’s nose as she prattled on about how fit he was, how she’d decided on asking him to Hogsmeade, and planned on seeing what all he was hiding beneath his robes.

It was maddening, these new feelings, and she often found herself terrified of what they might mean. She tried to convince herself that she only thought of him as a brother but quickly came to the conclusion that it was kind of fucking strange to be having thoughts about her ‘brother’s’ forearms. A strange charge shot through her every time their hands so much as brushed against each other and she finally had to admit to herself that she fancied him. Rose wasn’t one to get bent out of shape over a boy, but this was different. It was their entire friendship on the line if she couldn’t get her feelings under control.

But as Albus so dutifully pointed out, Scorpius could almost always be caught staring at her. He never did go on dates with all the other girls even though he was no stranger to being asked out, and it was Rose that he chose to spend all his time with. Keeping all of this in mind, she sat next to on the train at the end of term and ignored the rapid beating of her heart as she leaned into his side, falling into an easy sleep where she dreamt of a world where she was brave enough to express how she really felt.

***

It was that summer that the real shift happened. They had reached an unspoken agreement of sorts, both too scared to actually admit their feelings but not shy enough to resist all of the little things. It started as they watched some cheesy muggle film with Rose’s cousins, their pinkies inching towards each other under their shared blanket until he boldly took her hand in his, refusing to look her in the eye as they both blushed brilliantly. They spent less time with Albus and more time alone together. Time spent laughing and talking about everything under the sun. Their hugs lasted a little longer, he became quite accustomed to tucking a stray curl behind her ear, and she’d cried into her pillow for a week when instead of kissing her at Teddy and Vic’s wedding, he’d pulled away nervously and acted as it had never happened. Summer came to a close and she felt more conflicted than ever.

***

Sixth year came and of course, they _finally_ got together in the middle of an argument. They were in their element, tempers flaring and insults without any real meaning being thrown left and right when Scorpius finally snapped and kissed her. It felt like her entire life had been leading up to that moment. His hands around her waist, hers cupping his jaw tenderly, she couldn’t picture anything more magical. It was the sun sinking below the Black Lake, the snugness and warmth of one of her nana’s sweaters, and the rush she felt seeing Hogwarts for the first time after being away for the summer. He was everything to her, absolutely everything, and by some miracle, he felt the same way about her.

After that night the year carried on as normal, except it absolutely did not. She was happy, blissfully so; each day made better by the mere feel of his hand in hers, anchoring her to his side amidst the chaos that was her life. There was snogging, _lots and lots of snogging_ , and pulling roughly at shirts and tugging lightly at hair and scratching softly along backs as they explored each other in ways that were equal parts beautiful and scary.

Everything was different now, but it was also so wonderfully the same. He was still just Scorpius, the beautiful boy with a golden heart to match his smile, and she was still just Rose, the fiery spirit with hair to match. They bickered like they always had, only now she had the privilege of snogging him to shut him up. He took her on their first proper date in Hogsmeade where he held the door open and paid for her meal like the gentlemen he’d always been taught to be. But of course, she still pushed his head into the whipped cream of his butterbeer and he still hid her wand to get a rise out of her. It was all she’d ever wanted. This year, she felt no anxiety as she leaned into his side on the train ride home for the summer. She delighted in the feel of a laugh rumbling in his chest and his fingers playing with the ends of her hair. Everything had been worth it to get to this moment, she decided.

***

Seventh year was more or less the same except that NEWTs were on the horizon and they both found themselves going a tad crazy. With such an added level of stress, they found themselves bickering more than usual which usually led to ‘talking things out’ in empty classrooms, empty dorms, and empty broom cupboards. Rose decided that if arguing led to such a fantastic outcome, then maybe she needed to provoke him more often.

It was scary having to figure out their lives, but they did it together. They kept an eye out in the Prophet for flats being leased and managed to find a decent one over Christmas hols. Rose’s father of course hated the idea, but it caused something to bloom in her chest that she couldn’t seem to suppress. She and Scorpius were slowly but surely mapping out their future together. They were going to have a place of their own, a whole life of their own for that matter. The days of saying goodbye at King’s Cross would be gone. It was their forever now.

Hogwarts was home. Within its walls, she had met her best friend and fallen in love with him. She’d made her best and worst memories and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. But, as the final day arrived and she boarded the Hogwarts Express one last time, she knew that she was going to be okay. She had tearfully said her goodbyes to her teachers and friends and of course the castle too. But she didn't say goodbye to Scorpius. He was her best friend, the love of her life, the person she leaned on the most. No matter where the rest of their lives took them, he would be by her side just as he always had been.


End file.
